Story Line: To many of us, we believe the mentally ill are dangerous. In general, the media has contributed to this fear. One Flew Over the Coo-Koo's Nest is the base line reference for films that address this subject. More recently, Girl, Interrupted also focused on it.

When we see people like Mike Tyson, we can somewhat relate to their mental illness as we've all lost our temper at one time or another. Other celebrities that have come out in the media to openly discuss their experience are Dick Cavett, Rod Steiger and Mike Wallace. Usually these people can be treated through medication and counseling within the mental health system. These are the stories with “happy endings”.

Severe depression is a major cause of disability worldwide. In America alone, over 44 million people suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder according to the World Health Organization and the National Institute of Mental Health Foundation. More than 90% of people who commit suicide have a diagnosable mental disorder.

We learn about some of these people in the Mercer and Summit Inns. Mercer is an all women facility with 41 residents and a staff of 12, while Summit has 36 men, 4 women and a staff of 9.

Film director Lorian Elbert interviewed 24 people including staff, residents and one psychiatrist over the course of three months to answer two questions: 1) Who are schizophrenics and 2) What is it like to live in homes for schizophrenics?

Tell Me More About It: The people are interviewed in a one on one style looking into the camera. Usually they tell about their past and how they are doing in the home. You get the sense that they are indeed walking a line with one foot in one world and the other in another. And for at least one of the patients, it's clear that he's in another world all the time.

I would have liked to have known more about the background of the patients with respect to the environments that could not tolerate them that lead to them being “committed”. If the documentary was longer, assuming funds were available, possibly this could have been done. The film does have a clinical approach to it that may hamper its appeal for distribution in art house theaters. With a tie into either celebrities or events that we are puzzled about (Oklahoma bombing, high school shootings, etc.) that may be related to mental illness, Dignity could reach out and send a message to the masses.

As is the case with medical coverage in general, long-term care is an issue. Cost is a legitimate factor but mental illness may deserve more coverage rather than less. Certainly people who can't help themselves deserve the assistance of society to the extent it can be provided. I would think that most people can be treated on an out patient basis, but for the ones in this home, if they are not there, they will likely be on the street. Some of these people are the ones we see begging that we think, “should just go get a job”. For many that's not possible as they are not able to get through a day, much less an eight hour shift or even to the first smoke break.

Most of the homes are coed and this is far less than ideal, especially for women who may have painful histories with men. While there are shelters only for women, most are coed. Women suffer a depressive disorder at a rate of almost twice that of men. In the US alone, this translates to 12.4 million women and 6.4 million men.

The mentally ill often find it difficult to make daily decisions and handle crisis situations to maintain a balanced life within the social and job worlds. If you doubt that we have our head in the sand on this issue, consider the following facts:

I don't know what specific action should be taken, but we need to do something different or one day we will wish that we had. Hopefully it will not take multiple catastrophic events for our politicians to listen to people such as Lorian T. Elbert to make changes that are needed. Even a small step is better than no step at all. Something is differently wrong with this picture and it's not the film Dignity.